The Hero of Time
by Piccolo Sky
Summary: Ocarina of Time. One-shot. On the eve of his final battle with Ganondorf, Link meets Zelda as she reveals her true identity, and doing so brings many things he has been holding inside since awakening seven years in the future out to the surface...


Hey everyone. While I keep trying to finish my current project, I rewrote a one-shot I did years ago.

Something about "Ocarina of Time" never set well with me. I just didn't care for it that much for many reasons...plotwise being one of them. All of my gripes with the plot came out in my original one-shot, and on replaying the game on 3DS it all came back to me. So...I figured I'd give it a redo.

Basically it's a rather angsty look at what went through Link's head when Zelda revealed himself right before his final confrontation with Ganondorf.

Enjoy.

* * *

 **"The Hero of Time"**

* * *

Link wasn't sure how long he stood there staring at the offered "gift"…one of so many he had received at this point that he no longer remembered how many times he had obtained them. He had barely even heard the woman mention the phrase "light arrows". His ears were still tuned to the last thing she had told him, even as it slowly echoed out in the abandoned, hollow halls of the Temple of Time. And when it was finally gone, she was still standing there with arms outstretched.

Over time, her face began to fall, looking on his with confusion. Wondering why he wasn't taking them.

Link continued to stare back silently. He couldn't help but notice things about her. Her dress was so immaculate. The fabric seemed so new and flawless. A far cry from the clothing he had seen those in Kakariko Village, Gerudo Valley, and even the Kokiri Forest wearing. Theirs was far more worn. Far more seasoned. Criss-crossed with stitches and marks from trying to wash out blood among other stains. Definitely better than his own. One could smell the stench of fire and soot on his own clothes. One could see the marks where they had been nearly worn out; where the thread was bare on the shoulders and joints, and one sleeve nearly ripped from all the times his bowstring had snapped across it.

In a time where Castle Town lay in shambles and ruins, he noticed how precious and polished the gold embroidery and gems she adorned her dress with were. How it looked like they had some straight from a jeweler. How the tiara she wore…a crown to a nation that no longer existed…only seemed higher and more dazzling than the one she had worn as a child, as if the world had proceeded to give her the higher one at the proper time. By comparison, one could hardly tell his own gauntlets were made of silver anymore. They had already turned to dross as a result of passing through time, just as the rest of him had aged. His bow was worn, his hammer was chipped, and while it seemed nothing could scratch the Master's Sword it stank with the scent of monster blood that he could never clean off perfectly. It looked far grimier than when he had first pulled it from this very temple.

Then there was her face. Beautiful, smooth, delicate, lovely…well cared for and protected, which only figured as it had spent much of its time obscured behind a head and scarf covering. His own face was not that of a boy even if he was only physically fourteen and mentally seven. It was rough. Worn. Hard. Calloused through time and countless potions and fairy healings. The eyes were deep and dark now…the look of someone who had seen things most people would never see, and then had gone on to see far more than that afterward. Who had seen terrors and horrors that would have froze most souls. Who had seen things as hideous and horrendous as the sum of all nightmares. But most of all…the lines on his face. Lines that only formed when one saw certain things that could not and would not ever be undone. The loss of one's home. The departure of friends. The end of innocence. The weight of a destiny literally placed on one without warning one morning.

Her face, for all its claims to be the same, bore no such lines.

The echoes were gone, but the words still went through Link's mind. Again and again. Everything she had said. Every failure she had made. Every thing she had attempted along with him that had only ended up with more calamity. Were they heroes anymore? Even in the loosest sense of the word? What had he done since waking up in this time besides gone around trying to clean up the very messes the two of them were responsible for?

Everything he heard came together at once. It combined with what he had been thinking of for some time, and it all became abundantly clear.

His blue eyes slowly shut and he exhaled.

He muttered something.

Zelda blinked once in response. "...Link?"

He stood there, not reacting.

"I…I didn't catch that…"

The eyes slowly opened.

"I said…'you're just like them'."

The princess blinked again. "…What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

"They had a responsibility, and they didn't stick with it. They left it for other people to take care of."

This caught Zelda a bit. She hesitated. Her arm with the light arrows slowly lowered. "Who…who are you-"

"Din, Naryu, and Farore." Link cut off, his voice picking up. "This is their fault. All of it. They made this world. They gave us law with right and wrong. They filled it full of creatures that could choose one way or the other. And then they made the key to ultimate power…to be a god…and they left it right here. They claimed to uphold things that were good and right, and then they created those triangles just for whoever wanted them to come up and take. Because they thought someone else would keep it safe. They thought there would be 'good people' who would always keep it out of evil hands. But it didn't matter if that was true or not. They should have never left it. They should have never created it. If they loved this world so much…if they wanted it to be something beautiful and not just a 'game field' for people to kill each other on fighting for those things…they should have taken them with them. But they didn't. They let someone else handle it. It was their responsibility…and they let someone else handle it."

He paused.

"…Just like you."

Zelda was silent. Link saw her close her mouth as a lump went down her throat. She lowered the arrows all together and grimaced. "Link…I-"

The boy's hand went up and pointed an accusing finger at her. "You lied to me. Ever since I woke up, all you've been doing is lying to me."

Zelda winced. "I told you…I had to. I couldn't let Ganondorf know that-"

"You didn't trust me."

"Of…of course I did, Link! You were the only one who believed me! I gave you the Ocarina of Time! I may have been in disguise, but I've been helping you all along! I entrusted everything to you!"

"Everything except your identity." The boy stated coldly. "Everything except what could have put _you_ in danger."

Zelda winced again at that.

"It was ok to entrust Saria's fate, Daruna's fate, Ruto's fate…even the very woman who kept you safe all those years…to me. But when it came to you? You didn't believe that I'd succeed, did you? You didn't want to risk that I'd falter? That I'd be caught? That I'd give out the truth? Admit it, Zelda…you didn't ever completely believe in me. If you did you would have pulled off your mask as soon as I woke up and told me to promise not to tell anyone."

He stared at the young woman silently for a moment.

His head slowly shook.

"…I wouldn't have told a soul, you know. Just like I never told anyone what you said to me back when we first met."

Zelda's gaze turned to the ground. One of her elegantly clean white gloves came over and rested on her opposite arm. "Link…I'm…"

"You could have helped me more than just teaching me songs, too. You could have come with me. And none of that 'I'm not a fighter' stuff. Neither am _I_. I had to _learn it_. I had to risk getting incinerated in volcanoes, getting digested in fish stomachs, getting swallowed by darkness, getting buried alive by sand, getting drowned at the bottom of lakes…but I went through it all and I learned it. But no…while I was out risking getting killed time and time again, you were in your disguise hiding…just like you've been doing for the past seven years."

He took a step forward.

"While Ganondorf was cursing the Forest Temple, you were hiding. While he was reviving Volvaga, you were hiding. While he was freezing Zora's River, you were hiding. While he was calling forth Bongo Bongo, you were hiding. While the _one_ Gerudo who would have rallied the others against him, who might have done something to curb his power, was sentenced to a brainwashed slavery inside a suit of metal armor…you. Were. _Hiding._ "

At this, Zelda snapped her head up. "I had the Triforce of Wisdom, Link! I had what he wanted this whole time! I couldn't risk him learning about it! I couldn't risk him getting it! I couldn't risk him making what he had done in Hyrule already a thousand fold _worse!_ "

This, however, only tightened Link's face in full anger. He advanced another step on Zelda, this time so forcefully she recoiled. He thrust his hand out in front of her face, before reaching over, seizing the silver gauntlet on his hand violently, and ripping it off with such force that Zelda dropped the arrows in surprise to shield herself. But he didn't make any other move.

He merely showed the emblem of the three triangles on his hand, with the one in the lower right "complete".

"What is _this,_ Zelda?!" He shouted loud enough to echo through the temple. "What do you 'have the burden of bearing' that _I_ don't?! What was I risking giving to him each and every time I got in a fight to the death?! Don't stand here and start talking about how you were somehow making a 'greater sacrifice for Hyrule' by doing _nothing_ these past seven years except wait for me!"

The princess had no answer to this. Her head stayed bowed and to one side. But deep inside, Link saw his words had struck. Her eyes were shimmering a bit now. Her body quivered slightly. Like a thief having been caught in the act of stealing…all of her mistakes laid bare.

Link continued to fume for a moment, but gradually his temper cooled. After a time, he slowly exhaled. As the last of his own echoes died, he stepped back once. Zelda didn't react. He leaned over and snatched his gauntlet off the ground. As he slowly placed it back on his arm, his frown faded all together. His look turned softer…sadder… He exhaled again as he worked, this time more as a sigh.

"…What am I to you, Zelda?"

The princess slowly looked up.

Link didn't meet her gaze as his own look continued to falter. "Am I anything to you? Anything at all?"

He started to tighten the straps.

"I've…noticed something as I've gone along. At first it was just in people like Kaepora Gaebora…so I didn't think much of it. Then…it started coming from people like Impa. Then Darunia…" He paused, actually stopping in his work for a moment. "…Even Saria."

He paused, staring blankly into space, and then kept working.

"They…stopped talking to me like I was 'Link'. They started talking to me as if I was the 'Hero of Time'." He quietly continued. "Like I wasn't the boy they knew from seven years ago…that I was the 'Hero of Time'. That I wasn't the person who once laughed and played with them…that I was the 'Hero of Time'. That I wasn't once a child who had hopes and thoughts and dreams…that liked bowling with Bombchus or riding on horses…that bled when people cut him or got tired or hungry or thirsty…that sometimes wanted to just sit and talk for a bit and ask how they had survived the past seven years or tell them that I felt lonely sometimes knowing there's no place in Hyrule I belong now that I know I'm not a Kokiri…that I was just simply the 'Hero of Time'." He exhaled. "Like I stopped being a living, breathing, thinking, feeling creature once I drew the Master's Sword and I became just some legend on a page. Like I was some unfeeling tool. Shovels are meant to dig holes…hammers are meant to hit nails…cuccos are meant to lay eggs…"

He stopped and let out a weak chuckle.

"…and 'Heroes of Time' are meant to save the world and make everything better. Doesn't matter if from their perspective they were just little kids a little while ago. Doesn't matter if sometimes they feel scared or tired. Doesn't matter if even after sleeping for seven years their right arm still tingles from where it was shocked by that giant anemone or if they still sweat every night from remembering chopping up skeletons trying to rip them apart when crossing Hyrule Field. Doesn't matter if…if…"

He swallowed a bit.

"If they realize that it doesn't matter that their old bully apologized because he was right along…they really never did belong there."

The gauntlet reattached, Link looked up to Zelda.

"But I never noticed it with you. Because you never talked to me as if I was any of those things to begin with."

The young woman slowly exhaled, her head still to one side. Her hands only slowly lowered.

"…Link, as bad as you-"

"Have the decency to look me in the eye." The young man cut off. "After not even letting me come within four feet of you for the past few weeks, you owe me something."

Zelda closed her eyes and swallowed. She let out a long exhale, and then turned her head up and aimed it at him. When her eyes opened, her resolve had fortified itself again. For a moment, she seemed regal and even 'queenly' before him.

"Link, as bad as you think you have it, I won't let you stand there and make light of my own suffering. Do you think I don't realize all of this happened because of me? This was all my decision. All my own foolishness for thinking it would have been so easy to claim the Triforce and use it against Ganondorf. Hyrule is in this state because of _me_. My castle and city is destroyed because of me. The poor souls who didn't manage to escape here are cursed now because of me. Ganondorf has become the King of Evil because of me. I wear a tiara on my head and a gown embroidered with the symbol of the Royal Family…and I am a princess of nothing. Nothing but the ruins of this land that gets worse every day because of him. I've watched everyone's hope fade little by little as everyone gave into the despair and evil Ganondorf has been spreading, and I could do nothing except realize it was all my fault. Do you have any idea how many times my heart has broken for the people of Hyrule?"

Link was nearly taken by these words, for they were firm and with a contained passion. Her own eyes burned; showing that even in her own heart she believed them.

However, Link needed only glance at the pristine condition of her own attire to one again feeling his own passion rise.

"…You're telling me you 'cared'."

Zelda looked surprised at hearing that weak response, and her face tightened. "Of course I cared! I-"

"How many times did we meet when you were Shiek, Zelda?" Link again cut off, rather sharply. "Seven? Eight? In all of those times, what did you say to me? Just what to do next, right?"

The princess frowned, her own anger growing. "I was _trying_ to save Hyrule and guide you to do it, Link! What did you want me to say?"

"How about 'Link, are you hurt after going through that temple'?" He nearly shouted back. "'Why are you limping?' 'How did you get that burn mark?' 'Are you going to be alright to make the ride back to Kakariko Village?' 'I'm sorry you had to find out you weren't a Kokiri. What are you going to do now?' 'I'm sorry you lost your best friend. What did she mean to you?' 'Do you need _two minutes_ to just sit down and take in what happened to Hyrule? How about the fact you're suddenly in an oversized body and while ten seconds passed to you seven years passed to everyone else?'

"Zelda…was I ever a 'friend' to you? Was I ever even another person to you? Or was I just someone else for you to command and order around like a guard or a servant? Someone who lets you 'think of the plans' and then I just carry them out like a good little boy? And you knew me personally, Zelda! And you expect me to believe you actually cared about people you never even _met_?"

Zelda was silent. Her anger had evaporated at that. Her face looked downcast and hurt once again.

"…When this is all over," Link went on in a quieter voice. "When your subjects return to you and rebuild Hyrule Castle brick by brick, when they crown you queen, when you've replanted your garden and all the birds and butterflies have returned, and this country is finally at peace…you'll be back to where you were before. Everything will be back the way it was for you. But me? I'm never going to go home again. I can't. Even if I could, I'm never going to unsee all the things I've seen. Whether I'm fourteen or seven, I'm never going to be a 'kid' again."

Another pause.

"…Would you want to talk to me, then? Would you 'invite me to the castle' to just walk about with you in your garden? Would you ever come to visit me wherever I end up?"

He blinked once.

"Or were we supposed to be 'done' after this? The 'Hero of Time' did his job, so he needs to go back into the appendices of that history book he came from, right?"

Zelda's eyes closed. She let out a slow exhale.

"…Alright." She finally said quietly. "I misused you. I took you for granted. I thought so much about Hyrule that I ignored you and I ignored the people who this was impacting. I'm a terrible ruler. I messed up even worse than what I originally thought." Her eyes opened with a hint of anger. "Is that what you want to hear from me, Link? To hear me beat myself up even more? To hear me admit I failed people yet again?"

Link merely sighed and shook his head.

"There you go again, princess. Just as before…it's all about _you_." He grimly responded. "Just like it was all about your plan to save Hyrule, now it's all about how you failed. It's all about how you caused everyone to suffer. It's about how you weren't 'wise' enough to avoid all of this. It's about how you weren't concerned enough about other people. You, you, _you_. The legend all has to be written about your success and failure just as it has to be you who has to either stay hidden or everything fails."

He crossed his arms and inhaled.

"This may come as a shock to you, Zelda…but I never needed you to tell me any legend of prophecy. I never needed you to give me stories about three goddesses hiding ultimate power in the Sacred Realm or tales about the need for a pure heart or dreams about darkness covering the land and rays of hope breaking through the gloom. Because, frankly…I don't care. I would have killed that Queen Gohma because she was killing the very individual I saw as a father. I would have slain that King Dodongo because he was starving out all those Gorons. I would have helped cure Jabu-Jabu because he was important to the Zoras. And for the same reason I drove those monsters out of the Kokiri Forest, slew that dragon on Death Mountain, unfroze Zora's River, banished that shadow from Kakariko Village, and went into the Desert Colossus to rescue Nabooru… _because I want to help people and save Hyrule!_ I never needed any legend or title of 'Hero of Time' to do that! I never needed any magic sword or ocarina to do that!"

Again his hand pointed out.

" _That's_ what's wrong with you! You're so afraid of failure and hung up on legends and lore that you weren't willing to do anything! You think I'm standing here because I have this sword? Even if I didn't have it I'd _still_ walk right up to Ganondorf and fight him with whatever I _did_ have! Even my own bare hands if I had to! Look at me, princess! In a couple weeks I've undone what Ganondorf's done over seven years! Do you think it's because I'm so special or grand? It's because I saw what he was doing in this world and I wasn't going to wait for someone else to fix it! I wasn't going to wait for someone else to try and stop it! I wasn't going to wait for someone else to be the one to draw a line in the sand! I did what you wouldn't do for seven years…I stood up to him! And I did it _after_ I was the one who opened the Sacred Realm for him!"

Zelda was quiet again. Her eyes tried to go down several times, but they wouldn't fully lower. She remembered what he had said to her and tried to keep them elevated. Link continued to look back to her. After a time, he exhaled again.

At long last, he bent down and reached out to take up the discarded light arrows.

"Zelda…I've spent weeks listening to you very carefully. Now I want you to do the same to me." He said quietly as he grasped the shafts. "Having this…Triforce of Courage…or just plain having courage…it doesn't mean I have the power to always succeed or think I'm going to succeed. It means I don't let any mistakes…either ones in the past or the future…keep me from trying. I don't know what you're thinking right now or what you're planning. What you're going to do once Ganondorf is gone or if I fail."

Standing back up again, he exhaled as he reached for his side, putting a hand on a small blue instrument with the symbol of the Triforce etched into it.

"…But I know this has power over time, and that you only gave it to me for a short while and you'll want it back after this is done. I'm telling you…I'm warning you…I'm _pleading_ with you…don't let your fear of what you did and what you have ahead of you to put this world back together lead you to make a rash decision."

His blue eyed burned.

"You'll regret it forever if you do. _Far_ more than how much you regret what happened in seven years."

Zelda didn't answer. Her eyes had finally gone down again. She was trembling again. Her white-gloved hands grasped her forearms as she kept standing there. Link continued to wait, but she only kept standing there silently. Kept staring at the ground. Kept looking torn…and afraid.

* * *

He never got an answer from her when they were "interrupted". Her look turned to one of fear and panic when she was imprisoned in crystal and taken from Link's sight. He could only muse on what she had concluded as he ran up to the castle, realizing that this would be the most important moment of his life if nothing else. He wasn't sure what she would decide or, whatever it was, if she would have the power to go through with it. Whether she would decide that the weight of her past guilt and self-loathing merited her trying to either erase it from existence or sentence herself to a lifetime of the torment she felt she deserved…or she would be brave enough to pull herself up from the weight of her own crime and make it right just as Link had.

The youth hoped it would be the latter, but he had a feeling a woman who had hidden from the world and watched it decay for seven years wasn't going to turn around from a few words from a boy she had only ever seen as words on a page outlining a story. Yet that didn't matter to him now.

All that mattered was that he was the 'Hero of Time'…and he didn't need a legend, a princess, an owl, or anyone else to tell him _that_.

* * *

 **Fin**


End file.
